University of Oregon gave pay raises this spring to 1,300 professors and administration workers

View full sizeThomas Boyd, The Oregonian, 2009University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere gave more than 1,300 employees raises this spring, which has union employees questioning the move.

Oregon faced a $3.5 billion budget hole, its seven universities were to avoid across-the-board pay increases and most university employees worked with pay freezes or furlough days this spring.

But at the University of Oregon more than 1,300 professors and administrative workers got salary hikes. The increases included $2.8 million divided among 578 professors who had tenure or were on track to get it – an average raise of about $4,845, though increases varied widely.

The university also boosted salaries for 450 administration workers, which include clerks, and 300 nontenured instructors. These were not merit or across-the-board increases but an attempt to stay competitive by bringing faculty and administrator pay up to levels of comparable universities, according to a report released to The Oregonian on Friday by the University of Oregon.

In its response, the university argues that increases came from money it raised itself – rather than taxpayer money – through tuition, enrollment increases, private funds and research grants. The raises, it said, will compensate its employees competitively and help retain a high-quality faculty.

The UO was able to raise faculty wages from 85 percent to 97 percent of what prevails in similar research universities, the report said.

These "equity increases" went to about 80 percent of tenure and tenure-tracked faculty, 20 percent of non-tenured instructors, and a third of the administration staff.

The report provides some explanation, said Pernsteiner, but he wants a fuller picture of how salaries will have changed over four years ending in 2013.

"I got part of what I wanted," he said. "I'm going to ask for more."

Pernsteiner questioned UO's assertion it was not spending taxpayer money on raises since the majority of salaries come from state funding and tuition. All of the state's seven universities provide occasional increases to retain star faculty, but not on the scale the UO made this spring, he said.

Ben Eckstein, 21, a senior and president of UO students, said students can "see a direct link between faculty salaries and quality education."

But as they watch tuition shoot up 9 percent this fall, he said, students have concerns about using tuition to buy disproportional pay increases for senior administrators. Service Employees International Union Local 503, which just reached a tentative contract agreement with the university system Thursday for 4,000 university classified workers, alerted Pernsteiner's office last month to the large number of UO administrators getting pay increases.

The union identified by name 35 UO administrators each earning more than $100,000 who received pay increases ranging from 2.8 percent to 18.7 percent. The union settled for a 3 percent increase and seven to 11 more furlough days over the next two years.

Pernsteiner also called Lariviere on the carpet a year ago for allowing his classified employees to work overtime to offset losses in furlough days.

In its report to Pernsteiner, the UO says it will abide by Gov. John Kitzhaber's request that the universities keep salary and benefit increases under 6 percent over 2011-13.

The report explains the UO jumped at the chance earlier this year to raise salaries and protect quality at a time when state support keeps shrinking. The university was careful to avoid merit or across-the-board pay increases, said Russ Tomlin, senior vice provost for academic affairs.

"We were expressly permitted to do promotion and retention and equity increases," he said. "We focused most of our energy on equity increases, and that is where we were aggressive and where the concerns arose."

The university, for example, raised the salary for a tenured mathematics professor from $77,000 to $84,000.

In a letter to Pernsteiner accompanying the report, Lariviere writes, "It is imperative, in order to retain the quality faculty and staff that makes this place special, that we continue to take all necessary and allowable actions to make progress on faculty and staff salaries."

The report says the UO lost at least 15 professors, all among its best, to external offers this year. It also lost one of its top nontenured track instructors "who left for a six-figure California community college salary." The report adds, "we routinely lose (non-tenured track faculty) to Lane Community College and other Oregon community colleges because our salaries often have been lower."

The university in recent weeks also lost a valued admissions officer devoted to diversity to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, and it is fighting to keep its director of academic advising, who is being recruited by two California institutions, the report says.

Most of the pay increases are supported by university money, not that of taxpayers, the university says.

The UO is projected to receive $47 million from the state this year, a $15 million cut from last year and about the same the UO received in 1986 when it served 7,000 fewer students. The 24,000-student university is to receive about 5.8 percent of its total $1.5 billion budget for 2011-13 from the state.

Still, said senior vice provost Tomlin, the UO has seen its student applications double over the last four years.

"The university's reputation and desirability is clearly growing around the country and around the world."